Ice Wars
by Joriel
Summary: The Gundam Boys on ice. :)


Quatre Raberba Winner roamed the skating rink idly, carefully warming up his muscles for the upcoming competition. Playfully executing a few light turns and easy jumps, a broad smile lit his face when his body responded easily. Around him skated four other young males. Nervously he tried to put them away from his mind, imagining himself alone on the ice.  
  
Rasid, his coach, flashed him a big smile as he began to practice some of the more difficult jumps to make sure he was truly warmed up for the upcoming competition. It was easy then to forget the others out there with him, to lose himself in the freedom of the speed on the ice and the sheer, exhilerating joy of the jumps he twisted his body into. At sixteen, he was one of the younger skaters here trying to win the World Championship Title. He wanted to go on to the Olympics with at least one title!  
  
A proud smile lit his sweet face as he savored the moment during his colonies tryouts when he had won a spot on the Olympic Team! His family had been so happy and proud! They were very supportive of him. His father made sure he had the best of everything, from equipment to trainers, and had nothing more to do than work hard at his sport and enjoy himself in the little free time that left him. His sister Iria had devoted herself to sports medicine when he was very young and first began seriously devoting himself to skating and had been hurt. Now she was his personal medic whenever he needed her. His other sisters attended every competition he was in, and most of his practices had several of them there at any given moment to cheer him on. It always warmed his heart and made him do his best no matter how trivial his current challenge had been.  
  
Now here he was at the World Championships! The first true competition he'd ever been allowed to compete in publicly. Rasid had felt that while his skating was excellant, his confidence had needed work yet, and held Quatre back a little longer than his peers' trainers had their charges.  
  
With that thought, he glanced around at the other skaters on the ice.  
  
Heero Yuy was the Japanese skater. Rasid had said that his technical skills were absolutely perfect, but he lacked any flair for the creative and dramatic that judges so loved. Indeed, the boy was executing perfect jumps and turns, but his expression was utterly serious, with no joy or any other sign of feeling on it. To Quatre's eyes there was a mechanical feel to his performance.  
  
Duo Maxwell was the American representative. A strong skater, with a true talent for the dramatic and a reputation for creative new moves and combinations. Fortunately his technical skills were slightly lacking, he often made small mistakes on his landings and footwork. He was still the most beautiful one to watch of the others around him, Quatre thought, watching Duo put all his heart even into his warmup. And the long braid was kind of cute, too, Quatre giggled.  
  
Then there was the French Trowa Barton, the greatest acrobatic skater known. He was also beautiful to watch, his performance always graceful and astounding. Yet it was as Rasid had said, Trowa was too emotionless. There was a sad emptiness in his skating. But those amazing flips!  
  
Chang Wufei was the last of the five to make it here, the Chinese skater. Rashid had told him that Wufei was a perfectionist, but often at the cost of innovation and creativity. Rasid told him that Wufei was too conventional. While it was true he was a very good skater with great jumping and footwork skills, if another skater could pull off something new Wufei's slightly boring routines would not hold up to them. Rasid felt that Wufei would be easily beaten by both Quatre and Duo.  
  
Rasid had told Quatre that his own strength lay in the sweetness and love he put into his skating, that his technical skills were solid and his physical strength for jumps good. Still, it was the emotion that Quatre infused into his performances that Rasid saw as the way directly to the Gold Medal. He warned Quatre to watch the other skaters carefully, making Quatre watch many hours of the other four to reinforce that view. If Quatre could continue to show the audience and judges his heart in his performance, he could win.  
  
The people on the sports shows that Quatre watched said that Wufei and Heero were very hard to beat, and that he as a newcomer would have a very difficult time with them. But Rasid, whom he trusted infinately more, told him to forget them, it was Duo Maxwell that would be the hard one.  
  
Rasid had been very worried when the order of skating came up Wufei, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, then Duo last. He told Quatre that as unfair as it was, placement was often a driving factor in scoring, as judges disliked to highly score the first thing they saw in case more deserving performances came later, and they tended to remember best what they saw last. And he didn't like Duo both getting the last position, and skating directly after Quatre, for Duo was truly an emotional skater also, and with his good looks and cheerful smile was a main favorite. Quatre only cared that he did his best, although he really would like to win!  
  
Wufei's performance was flawless, but very traditional, and he did not get high marks on the artistic side, though they were solid for what he did do well. His technical marks were high however, and overall he had a very solid score.  
  
Heero's technical scores came in perfect, and everyone gulped nervously as they listened to them being read over the loudspeaker. Surprisingly his artistic scores were higher than his normal, his skating clearly showing that someone had been working very hard to improve his weaker side, but they were still not high enough to make him unbeatable.  
  
Trowa's performance went well also, but he landed at a slightly awkward angle on one of his high double flip jumps, and lost technical points. His artistic scores were solid for his fantastically graceful perfomance, but nothing really high. He was second to Heero, with Wufei coing in third.  
  
Quatre took to the ice slightly nervously, standing in the thirty seconds silence they gave each skater to center themselves before beginning. He was dressed in a cute little blue vest and pants suit that matched his eyes, highlighted by a brilliantly white poet's shirt with adorably floppy sleeves. Steadying himself, he willed everything to vanich from his mind except the ice and the music he waited for. There were no other skaters, no audience, no judges, only him and the joy of doing what he loved.  
  
The music began and Quatre moved into it, offering his very soul to the smooth ice beneath him an the soft notes around him. He was skating to the song "I Believe in  
  
Love" by Blessid Union of Souls, because it matched his heart. He believed in the ideal, in the song, and in himself, and it showed clearly to the enchanted audience. This young newcomer was absolutely beautiful in his element, and no one dared so much as whisper for fear of breaking the spell.  
  
He did the best skating of his life then, putting every ounce of training, skill, and natural ability into it. Even Heero and Trowa were absorbed in the beauty of his dance, not taking apart his technical skills as they had been doing while watching the other performances.  
  
Finally Quatre leaped into his finale, pulling off a quad air spin, one of the hardest jumps he was yet capable of. For once he felt no fear of the jump. His body spun once, twice, three times...and then...amazingly...it obediently did the fourth! He cried out in triumph as he landed neatly and slid to his knees in the signal that his performance was over exactly as the last strain of music faded softly away.  
  
There was total silence for one long, eternal moment.  
  
Then...thunder. Everyone leaped to their feet, clapping, shouting, cheering, throwing flowers at him, all for him! Quatre's face turned bright pink as he rose, turning his face to meet Rasid's and his father's eyes. They were beaming at him as he skated towards them to sit down and hear his scores, and once he reached the edge of the rink he was caught up in many arms and hugs. Laughing happily, he sat down with an absurdly huge bouquet of flowers nearly larger than he himself in his arms.  
  
The scores were read, and Quatre's eyes bulged. His technical was very nearly as high as Heero's, and his artistic were the highest yet! He was in the lead! Even if Duo beat him, he was still going to pull second place!!!!  
  
Duo Maxwell took to the ice, dressed all in black with a white collar, looking for all the world like a lost priest. But somehow it worked for him, and the audience cheered thier beloved favorite on, though many hearts were now in Quatre's favor.  
  
Duo went through his performance flawlessly, as beautiful as Quatre's. Breaths were held, and a tight knot of tension formed in Quatre's stomach as he watched the other skater dance on the ice to "Part of your World" from the Little Mermaid movie. Just as Quatre had captured the essence of his convictions of love, Duo captured the longing heart, courage, and yearning of a lost lover trying desperately to rejoin his beloved. He leapt high and joyfully during the soaring notes of the lovely song, spun sadly with a desolate air during the melancholy parts, and made smooth transitions between jumps.  
  
Then all breaths were held again as Duo primed for his finale... it was going to be the closest most of them had ever seen...  
  
Duo gathered himself and leapt impossibly high into the air, somersaulting in a neat 360 degree turn, intending to land on one foot and have his other leg stretched out horizontally to the ice behind him as he glided to a stop and stood strait again. Duo's foot touched down on the ice, no one moved in the arena...  
  
There! Duo wavered, and had to bring his other foot down to the ice early to save his balance! He quickly resumed the position he was belonged in, gliding to a smooth stop, but it was all the opening Quatre needed, and they both knew it. Duo's eyes met Quatre's as he took his bows, and there was only cheer and goodwill in them as he nodded his head slightly, conceding defeat. This time! the irrepressible sparkle in his violet eyes warned Quatre.  
  
Duo's scores were read, 2 tenths of a point lower than Quatre's!!!  
  
Quatre smiled leaped into the air in joy, his eyes seeking Duo's and smiling. In that one glance a fast friendship was made. Both boys and Heero returned to the ice for their bows, being the top three in the competition.  
  
"Nothing can ever be more wonderful than this moment," Quatre thought happily. "I will carry it in my heart forever!"  
  
  
  
"Get up!" a cold monotone ordered the sleeping blond.  
  
"What?" Quatre mumbled fuzzily, opening dazed blue eyes to meet the other four Gundam Pilot's even gazes.  
  
"Mission!" Duo said cheerily, shoving the vest on top of Quatre's dresser aside in favor of another one. "Briefing in twenty minutes, get dressed!" Quatre caught the item of clothing tossed at him as the others left his room.  
  
He looked down at the blue vest in his hands. He had fallen asleep wearing a red shirt and red pants that would have looked smart with the white vest Duo had tossed to the side inexplicably for the blue one that would look hideous with this outfit, but matched the one in his dream exactly...  
  
Well, some things couldn't be explained. Quatre knew this. He also knew that they could be held close to him forever. Like a brief glimpse of what might have been.  
  
"I will carry it in my heart forever," he repeated, smiling. 


End file.
